Smarterphone

The firm's core business centered on the development and licensing of Smarterphone OS, a proprietary operating system tailored for the feature phone segment. Its business model targeted mobile phone original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), original design manufacturers (ODMs), and chipset vendors. Smarterphone provided these clients with a platform-independent, full mobile phone OS and an accompanying suite of applications. This enabled manufacturers to deliver a user experience on affordable hardware that paralleled that of more advanced smartphones. The company also offered professional services to support the integration and customization of its software.

The Smarterphone OS was engineered for efficiency on low-cost hardware, a key selling proposition for its target market. A notable technical characteristic was its user interface, which was programmed in a scripting language that was a variant of Scheme with object-oriented extensions. The OS was designed with a strict model-view-controller architecture, which facilitated rapid implementation of customized variations for different clients. It integrated various third-party modules, including a Java ME JVM from Oracle, a mobile browser from Obigo, and predictive text input from Nuance. One of its earlier iterations was known as Mimiria, which was showcased at the Mobile World Congress in 2008.

The company's growth was supported by venture capital, with Ferd Capital investing €2 million in June 2007 and an additional €3.6 million by January 2010. A significant milestone in Smarterphone's history was its acquisition by Nokia, a transaction completed in November 2011. This acquisition was part of Nokia's 'Next Billion' strategy, aimed at enhancing its feature phone offerings, particularly the Asha series, for developing markets. Following the acquisition, founder Egil Kvaleberg transitioned to a role at Nokia as Director of Smarterphone Framework.